Investor Carl Icahn drops bid to take over Dell

Investor Carl Icahn yesterday dropped his months-long attempt to take over computer maker Dell, three days before shareholders are to weigh the latest buyout offer from company founder and CEO Michael Dell.

Icahn said he still opposes Michael Dell’s bid, and that a battle with him and Dell’s board “would be almost impossible to win,” Reuters reported.

Dell did not comment.

Michael Dell’s US$24.8bn bid to take the company private includes an offer of US$13.75 per share plus a US$0.13 dividend. He wants to take the company private in order to realign it from being a PC maker to an enterprise computing services provider.

Icahn wanted Michael Dell removed as CEO and had proposed an alternative offer that would keep the company publicly traded.

“The Dell board, like so many boards in this country, reminds me of Clark Gable’s last words in Gone with the Wind, they simply ‘don’t give a damn’,” Icahn wrote in an open letter to shareholders yesterday.